Virtual Tenement Talk: A Journey to Freedom

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In partnership with the American Indian Community House, join us on YouTube Live for a free virtual talk with historian Kent Blansett, author of A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement. Prof. Blansett will share the life of Akwesasne Mohawk activist Richard Oakes, who grew up in Brooklyn, and how his actions reflected a unique voice of Indigenous leadership within the Red Power movement, a movement seeking self-determination for American Indians. Prof. Blansett uses Oakes’s life story to explore the Indian Cities of Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Seattle while exploring the intersections of Native nationalism and Red Power.

Oakes played a crucial role in Red Power activism from the 1960s to the 1970s, including the nineteen-month takeover of Alcatraz Island by the organization Indians of All Tribes. His assassination in 1972 inspired the Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington, D.C., and unified a movement that eventually ushered in a new era in Indigenous rights reform and legislation.

Kent Blansett is a Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Shawnee, and Potawatomi descendant from the Blanket, Panther, and Smith families. He is the Langston Hughes Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and History at the University of Kansas.

This program is in partnership with the American Indian Community House, whose mission is to improve and promote the well-being of the American Indian community and to increase the visibility of American Indian cultures in an urban setting in order to cultivate awareness, understanding and respect.

While this program is free, you can contribute to the Manna-hatta Fund, through which, donations will go directly to American Indian Community House. 

Purchase A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement from independent Brooklyn book store, Books Are Magic

When: November 24, 2020, 7:00 – 8:00 pm ET

Where: https://youtu.be/ZNkkUJjMDo0

This program will continue to be available on our Youtube channel following the LIVE screening.